A court in India has found a man guilty of raping and killing British schoolgirl Scarlett Keeling on a Goa beach in 2008. Samson D’Souza was charged alongside Placido Carvalho after 15-year-old Keeling’s bruised and semi-naked body was found in shallow water on a beach in the Indian resort state.
Both men were cleared of her murder in 2016.
The 15-year-old’s bruised and half-naked body was discovered in shallow water on Anjuna beach in February 2008. She suffered 50 separate injuries and a post-mortem examination showed that there was ecstasy, cocaine and LSD in her bloodstream when she was found. D’Souza and Carvalho had drugged, raped her and killed her by leaving her overdosing body in the water.
The rapists denied the charges, claiming Scarlett died accidentally after deciding to take drugs herself. The pair of rapist murderers smiled as the not guilty verdict was announced by Judge Vandana Tendulkar in a packed courtroom. D’Souza told reporters: “I am happy with the verdict. Justice has prevailed.”
Police had initially dismissed the teenager’s death as an accident but had reopened the case after the mother of the victim pushed for a second post-mortem examination which proved that she had been drugged and raped.
On Wednesday, 11 years after Keeling’s death, a judge in Mumbai upheld Carvalho’s acquittal but overturned D’Souza’s previous verdict, convicting him of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, using force with intent to outrage a woman’s modesty and administering drugs with intent to harm.
D’Souza’s sentence will be handed down on Friday.
